Of course, proponents of quantum causal models might be inclined to insist on functional grounds that there is actually no distinction between a `causal explanation' and the kind of operational account offered by quantum causal models. We have no particular objection to this position, but we emphasize that taking such a stance would have the consequence that a `causal explanation' for quantum phenomena would no longer confer any particularly novel insight into those phenomena. For example, what the quantum causal modelling framework tells us about the Bell correlations is simply what we already knew, i.e. that these correlations can be produced in the lab by an agent who prepares a joint entangled state in the causal past of both measurements. There may be good functional reasons to refer to this description as a `(quantum) causal model' but the name alone does not confer on the description any additional explanatory power - for example, those who previously believed that the Bell correlations must be given a local account by means of retrocausality or superdeterminism will surely not be swayed from their view by linguistic or metaphysical arguments concerning what counts as a `cause.' On a different note, in light of the preceding discussion it is interesting to consider the symmetry properties of quantum causal structures. Quantum causal models replace causal relations with unitary transformations, and as noted in ref [1]} `the causal structure of a unitary transformation is reversible in a strong sense, which goes beyond the obvious fact that unitaries are reversible transformations: if the causal structure of a unitary transformation U is represented by drawing arrows from inputs to outputs ... then the causal structure of \(U^{-1}\)  is given by inverting the arrows. In case this seems obvious, note that a similar thing is not true for classical reversible functions.' So `any temporal asymmetry ... in the framework of quantum causal models does not arise in the specification of the causal relations themselves'[1]}. Hence the quantum causal modelling framework in fact contains no intrinsically asymmetric `cause-effect relations,' but instead instantiates exactly the notion of causal order that we have set out in this article, which may be regarded as further evidence that the physics of quantum mechanics instantiates causal order but not strong causation.
